Can I Make a Website for a Halal Brand If Their Online Presence Includes Haram Content?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Is it permissible to create a website for a brand that sells halal products if their social media accounts contain haram content, such as non-hijabi women, music, or celebrations of haram holidays? Can I include links to these accounts on the website?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
It would be permissible to create a website for a brand that sells halal products despite their social media accounts containing impermissible content.
In your case, you are not the person directly engaged in adding the haram content to their social media. Instead, a third party is. Thus, your work of creating a website is permitted in itself, and your income is valid.
The distinction can become less clear depending on your specific tasks. The closer a task comes to directly assisting someone in wrongdoing, the more likely it is to be disapproved. For example, if their social media contains haram content (e.g., uncovered women, music, haram celebrations), linking to it may be seen as directing people toward haram.
However, most web development and IT technician tasks generally fall within the category of permissible activities, as noted in the general guideline above.
Degrees of Assisting Another in Sin
In the Hanafi School, this has levels:
- It is haram to do that which is a direct cause for sin;
- It is disliked doing that which is an indirect cause for sin;
- It is better to avoid that which could be a cause for sin. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; Zayla‘i, Tabyin al-Haqa’iq; Nahlawi, Durar al-Mubaha; ‘Usmani, Fiqh al-Buyu‘]
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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Mawlana Ilyas Patel has received traditional education in various countries. He started his schooling in the UK and completed his hifz of the Quran in India. After that, he joined an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied secular and Aalimiyya sciences. Later, he traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries to further his education. Mawlana has served as an Imam in the Republic of Ireland for several years and taught the Quran and other Islamic sciences to both children and adults. He also worked as a teacher and librarian at a local Islamic seminary in the UK for 12 years. Presently, he lives in the UK with his wife and is interested in books and gardening.
